What does D2C mean? Direct-to-consumer, explained

In business, D2C (direct-to-consumer) means a brand sells its products to end customers through its own channel, such as a web shop, with no retailer in the sale.

By Berend Vrakking, founder of Product Metrics. Updated 5 November 2026.

D2C example: one product, sold direct or through a retailer

The same €80.00 product, sold direct and through a retailer
Per order, excl. VAT	Direct (own web shop)	Through a retailer
Revenue to the brand	€80.00 (full price)	€44.00 (wholesale price)
Product cost	−€20.00	−€20.00
Shipping, packing and payment fees	−€9.00	−€2.00
Returns and customer service	−€6.00	−€1.00
Advertising per order	−€30.00	−€3.00
Contribution (and contribution margin)	€15.00 (19%)	€18.00 (41%)

Selling direct keeps €36.00 more of the price, but shipping, returns and advertising take €39.00 more. The retailer route earns €18.00 an order, the web shop €15.00. Bring advertising per order down to €20.00 and the direct sale earns €25.00. Illustrative data.

Put it into practice

Explore it: Product SegmentationSee which products pay for their Shopping and Performance Max ads, segment by segment.
Read the guide: D2C marketing strategyPlan channels, acquisition cost and repeat purchase for a direct-to-consumer brand.

D2C: one product and the whole account

The D2C business model changes who gets paid and who pays. In a direct sale the customer pays the brand the full price; through a retailer, the customer pays the retailer and the brand receives a wholesale price. In return, the costs move to the brand: winning the customer, shipping each order, handling returns and answering questions. The brand also keeps the customer’s details, which stay with the retailer when the retailer makes the sale.

Many brands run both routes, so the same product can sell direct in the web shop and through retailers and marketplaces. D2C then describes the orders, not the whole company: the web shop orders are D2C, the wholesale orders are not.

For one product, D2C pays when the price left after product cost, shipping, returns and advertising is still positive. A high-margin product can pay for the ads behind every order, while a low-margin product loses money on each paid sale. One account-wide return on ad spend mixes the two, so the losses stay hidden.

Product Metrics works on the paid side of a D2C shop’s Google Ads. It puts each product in one of six segments, by volume and return, and writes the segment to a Merchant Center custom label, so you can give products that pay for their ads higher priority in Shopping and Performance Max campaigns, and lower priority to products that don’t.

D2C: common mistake

Counting every online sale as a direct-to-consumer sale. A multi-brand online retailer selling other companies’ products is ecommerce but not D2C, and a brand’s sales on a marketplace go through someone else’s storefront. D2C describes who sells to the customer, not whether the sale happens online.

D2C: questions

Is it DTC or D2C?

Both. DTC and D2C are two spellings of the same term, direct-to-consumer, and neither is more correct. “Direct-to-customer” is a common variant wording for the same idea: a brand selling its own products to end customers without a retailer or wholesaler in the sale.

What is the difference between D2C and B2C?

B2C (business-to-consumer) covers any business that sells to consumers, including retailers selling other companies’ brands. D2C is the part of B2C where the seller is the brand that makes or owns the product. B2B (business-to-business) is a sale to another company, such as a brand’s wholesale order to a retailer. Every D2C sale is a B2C sale; not every B2C sale is D2C.

What is a D2C brand?

A D2C brand is a brand that sells its own products straight to consumers through its own web shop, app or stores. For example, a mattress brand that sells and ships from its own web shop is a D2C brand, even if department stores stock it too.

Is D2C the same as ecommerce?

No. Ecommerce says where the sale happens: online. D2C says who sells: the brand itself. D2C ecommerce is where the two meet, a brand selling from its own web shop or app; a multi-brand online retailer is ecommerce without being D2C, and a brand’s own physical store is D2C without being ecommerce.

Is Amazon a D2C brand?

Mostly no. Amazon is a retailer and a marketplace, so a brand’s sale there goes through Amazon’s storefront, not the brand’s own. When Amazon buys the stock wholesale through Vendor Central and resells it, the sale is a retail sale. The exception is Amazon’s own brands, such as Amazon Basics: Amazon sells those direct in its own store.

Keep reading

D2C brand examplesSee how real brands run their direct channel next to retail and marketplaces.
Customer acquisition cost (CAC)What a D2C brand pays in marketing to win each new customer.
Contribution marginWhat a direct sale leaves after product cost, shipping, fees and returns.
POASJudge a direct sale’s advertising by the profit it brings back, not the revenue.
Ecommerce PPC by product profitWork out what paid clicks cost each product, and which ones earn it back.